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Herbs, Homeopathy & Remedies for Cataracts

Bilberry supports healthy eye function by protecting the integrity of the blood vessel walls from breakage or fluid leakage as well as its ability to increase blood circulation throughout the body, including the eyes. Our eyes need good blood circulation to receive essential nutrients on a continual basis so herbs like Bilberry and Gingko biloba should be considered to help keep your eyes strong and prevent cataracts. Grape Seed is also a powerful antioxidant that can potentially help reduce cell damage in the lens and slow down the growth of cataracts (while also helping you manage health conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol).

The lens of the eye is usually clear but if a person develops cataracts, the area becomes opaque and does not allow light to pass through making vision blurry. Because cataracts develop very slowly most people do not know they have them at first; additional lighting or stronger prescription eyeglasses may become necessary but will only help for a time. If left untreated cataracts can impair vision to the point of not being able to see the face of a loved one or read the words of a favorite book and eventually could lead to blindness. What can you to do help treat and prevent cataracts? Plenty!

Herbs to Promote Eye Health and Help Prevent Cataracts

Bilberry is a powerful antioxidant that is used for eyesight, to improve night vision, for diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

Bilberry supports healthy eye function by protecting the integrity of the blood vessel walls from breakage or fluid leakage as well as its ability to increase blood circulation throughout the body, including the eyes. Our eyes need good blood circulation to receive essential nutrients on a continual basis so herbs like Bilberry and Gingko biloba should be considered to help keep your eyes strong and prevent cataracts. Grape Seed is also a powerful antioxidant that can potentially help reduce cell damage in the lens and slow down the growth of cataracts (while also helping you manage health conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol).

Hanna blended Witch Hazel Bark, Bilberry, Angelica Root, and Goldenseal Root to make her Herbal Combination Eye Formula. This clever assortment of herbs is suitable nourishment for healthy vision and can be taken by all age groups. Eye Formula maintains healthy existing eyesight.

Other Options to Promote Eye Health

Some homeopathic remedies have proven beneficial for people hoping to address cataracts. Hanna created a vibrational remedy called Cataract and there are others to consider that may offer promise. Sepia has been indicated when there is a sensation of weakness in the eyes with the symptom worsening as evening approaches. Causticum may be indicated when the sensation of sand or grit is in the eye, when eyelids feel heavy, or when the eyes feel better only when closed. Flashes of light, burning and itching, pressure in the eyes, as well as light sensitivity can also be addressed with causticum. Bentonite clay has been beneficial for cataract patients when applied as a clay paste to the eyelids or by making eye drops from water filtered through the clay to help dissolve the cataract.

Hanna’s remedies for cataracts:

Lie down and drop as much fresh coconut juice as the eye can hold with an eye dropper then apply a hot, wet cloth over the closed eye. Keep the cloth hot for 10 minutes.

Boil 2 ounces of bean pods in 1 ½ quarts water for 20 minutes and drink 6 ounces, 3 times a day.

Tips to Prevent Cataracts

Give Up Smoking: Smoking increases the risk of eye disease/conditions and smokers are likely to experience cataract symptoms earlier than non-smokers.

Control Your Diabetes: If you are a diabetic your risk of cataracts is higher. Keep your diabetes under control and follow your treatment plan.

Exercise: Good for your entire body, including your eyes! Age-related macular degeneration and the risk of cataracts decreases with frequent exercise.

Sleep: Good sleep gives your eyes a rest; aim for at least 7 hours of quality sleep each night.

Shade Your Eyes: UV radiation causes a great deal of damage to the eyes so keep them healthy by purchasing sunglasses that block UV rays.

Lose the Weight: Obesity significantly raises the risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes which in turn is a great risk factor in developing cataracts. Keeping your weight within a healthy range will prevent your risk from increasing.

Many vitamins and herbs have been shown to be effective in keeping our eyes healthy and our vision strong. There are even eye care tools such as pinhole glasses to exercise your eyes. Visit our eye-health section for some great products to keep your eyes at their best!

Understanding Herbal Extracts

Too often herbal extracts are subjected to excessive chemical processing, which renders them deteriorated and incomplete. We’ve touched on the purity of Kroeger Herb Products’ Complete Concentrates in a recent blog post but are still asked questions as to why these supplements are so reliable, safe, and effective. Take a look for answers to frequently asked questions and learn why Kroeger is putting the natural back in herbs.

Too often herbal extracts are subjected to excessive chemical processing, which renders them deteriorated and incomplete. We’ve touched on the purity of Kroeger Herb Products’ Complete Concentrates in a recent blog post but are still asked questions as to why these supplements are so reliable, safe, and effective. Take a look for answers to frequently asked questions and learn why Kroeger is putting the natural back in herbs.

Schizandra berries are sticky & difficult to get in a capsule but Kroeger doesn’t add any flowing agents to the berry!

Aren’t all Herbal Extracts Natural? Unfortunately most companies use harsh toxic solvents in the extraction process such as acetone, denatured alcohol, or hexane which are not natural. When herbal extracts are created with these solvents, their purity is stripped and the potency of the herb is affected. What makes Complete Concentrates so different is that through a water (or in the case of Milk Thistle and Echinacea, water and food grade alcohol) extraction process, no solvents are introduced and you’re ingesting a product that is safe and toxin-free.

Do Solvents Evaporate off Herbs During Extraction? Solvents do evaporate from the herbs but there may be a residue left. Think of it this way: Imagine eating spinach soaked in nail polish remover (a common solvent in herb extraction) then letting it dry…would you want to eat it? Now imagine eating spinach soaked in water and allowing that to dry. Is the water soaked spinach more appealing to eat? Many of the solvents used in extraction methods are toxic not only to people but also the environment. Add to the list of frustrations with solvents, unlike excipients or fillers they are not required by law to be listed on labels and companies who use these toxins want to keep it that way.

This symbol of purity is found on each bottle of Kroeger’s Complete Concentrates. Click here to see their entire line!

What are Excipients? After the extraction process herbs are liquid and are often sticky, posing a problem when a company wishes to encapsulate the herb. The easiest solution to this problem is to add a carrier substance for that liquid to be sprayed on. These carrier substances, or excipients, add another ingredient to the label for companies that choose to use them (like magnesium sterate or maltodextrin). In the case of Kroeger’s Concentrates, the liquid extract is sprayed back onto the herb which has been through the extraction process or on fresh herb so that nothing new is introduced to the product.

What do Flowing Agents Do? During encapsulation, especially with sticky herbal extracts, some companies prefer to add flowing agents to absorb excess moisture and speed up the capping process. While this saves production time costs, many flowing agents are synthetic and dilute the extract while adding further ingredients to your label. Look for the addition of rice, wheat, corn, whey, or other powdered substances; these flowing agents are not needed and are negatively impacting the potency of the herb.

What is a Filler? What do Fillers do? An average capsule has room for about 350-500 milligrams of herbs. Using only extracted herb is excessive and expensive so to cut corners, many companies add ingredients to the capsule to fill space. While some of these ingredients (rice powder for example) may have some sort of nutritional value, if a company is touting the purity of their concentrated products, there is no need for a filler to be included.

What does Full Spectrum Mean? Kroeger’s Complete Concentrates are a full spectrum product which means that the constituents of the herb are present in their natural ratios. When a concentrated herb is full spectrum, all of the constituents are concentrated at the same percentage.

If you have any other questions about Kroeger’s line of Complete Concentrates, let us know! We’re happy to share any information we can and hope you see now why this line of concentrates is superior to other products on the market. Paying attention to labels and understanding what methods were used in creating an herb is just as important as knowing what ingredients are going into your system.

May is National Healthy Vision Month

When considering your overall health, how often do you take into account the proper function of your eyes? May is National Healthy Vision Month and we’ve got tips, remedies, and natural products to help keep your eyes nourished, clear, and healthy! Take a look!

There are four major factors that impact our vision and each of them can be addressed in a natural way.

When considering your overall health, how often do you take into account the proper function of your eyes? May is National Healthy Vision Month and we’ve got tips, remedies, and natural products to help keep your eyes nourished, clear, and healthy! Take a look!

There are four major factors that impact our vision and each of them can be addressed in a natural way.

Consider the proper function of your eyes during National Healthy Vision Month!

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Two of the most prevalent eye diseases today can be attributed to free radical damage: macular degeneration and cataracts. Free radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons that destroy body compounds by binding to healthy molecules and stealing one of their paired electrons, creating another free radical. To fight back against free radicals, consider a daily antioxidant rich herb to sweep them from your system. Most eye conditions involve some degree of oxidation damage to tissues so even a general antioxidant program is a wise idea. Learn more about antioxidants and which are the most powerful here.

Inadequate nutrition, especially diets low in vitamin A, is another cause of poor eye health. The body cannot manufacture vitamin A on its own and when we are lacking this vitamin, our ability to send visual images to our brain is affected. Other nutrients essential to eye health are vitamins B1 and B2, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese.

Our environment can greatly affect eye function. Any activity that requires you to focus at a fixed distance for long periods of time can cause fatigue for your eyes, this includes staring at a computer screen, reading, driving, or watching television. Taxing your eye muscles in this way not only causes eye strain but is also thought to play a role in the eventual distortions of the eyeball known as near- and far-sightedness.

Exposure to glare or sudden lighting shifts can deplete the eye of rhodopsin. When a single light photon hits the compound (rhodopsin), the pigment explodes and sends an electrical charge to the brain through neurotransmitters beneath the retina; rhodopsin produces visual images for our brains. Aside from depleting rhodopsin, sudden changes in lighting or exposure to glare cause eye strain and fatigue.

Beyond the vitamins and other nutrients listed above, there are several natural products you can take to improve eye function, maintain existing eye health, and prevent damage.

Bilberryis a European cousin to the American blueberry and has shown benefits in clinical trials for eye strain, glare exposure, adaption to light/dark shifts, poor

Bilberry provides support for the eyes and addresses a wide range of eye complaints.

Angelica root promotes good capillary circulation, a must for eye health. The eye needs to be constantly nourished with vital, fresh blood in order to function properly so a healthy circulatory system cannot be underestimated in the function of the eye.

Goldenseal has been used by traditional herbalists for promoting healthy eyes as an eyewash for inflamed or infected eyes and as a circulatory tonic for the body’s extremities, including the eyes. Many traditional herbalism systems also relate eye health to a healthy liver and Goldenseal is frequently used for many liver indications.

Hanna believed in using herbs, spices, and foods to speed healing in the body and this included eye issues. While potatoes were Hanna’s most commonly suggested remedy for a variety of eye ailments, she also created a special herbal formula for eye health, and passed along several other remedies. Here’s a sampling:

When considering your overall health, be sure to include your eyesight! We often take the healthy function of our eyes for granted but with Hanna’s remedies, as well as the herbs, vitamins, and nutrients listed here, we can promote healthy eye sight. Take a look at our Eye Health Section on our website for easy access to great products to celebrate National Healthy Vision Month!